Working with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the seven PBS stations across Pennsylvania joined together to create Your Learning Neighborhood, your connection to thousands of hours of education and entertaining videos, activities, lessons, and games to support you. You can find out more at pennsylvaniapbs.org, in addition to our resources below.
Teachers, parents and caregivers: please explore! We are in this #TogetherPennsylvania.
Join WPSU & WQED as we explore different types of jobs and celebrate our unique interests! This virtual event will engage students by thinking through their own interests and how that connects to various careers and types of jobs. Let’s dive into the World of Work while we play AND learn with PBS KIDS! This free event is a part of Remake Learning Days and is designed for K-2 classrooms.
Friday, May 10, from 12:30 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Bring the family out for a morning of fun activities as we watch episodes of PBS’s beloved program, Molly of Denali. Children and their families are invited to join us in the WPSU Lobby for this FREE screening.
Saturday, May 11, from 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
WPSU is offering a film screening of the documentary, “Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life,” along with classroom resources to support your students in discussing difficult topics and creating solutions for peace.
In partnership with PA Department of Labor and Industry, WPSU has curated free content for parents, students, and educators that align to state career readiness standards. Here are top resources to help parents, students, and educators explore various careers.
WPSU is delighted to have collaborated with the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows Office at Penn State to create a video series presented by the 2021 Humphrey Fellows. These educational videos, suited for classroom and community viewing, feature each fellow talking about their home country, its culture, history, and people.
“Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings” follows 13 young people in a genetics and genealogy camp as they explore their family history and DNA ancestry with techniques never before used in an educational setting.
The Geospatial Revolution Project, from WPSU Penn State public broadcasting, provides schools with a look into GPS data gathering, which influences nearly everything. Explore these resources here!
Materials science is the study of stuff— what it’s made of, how it can be used, and even how it can be changed to create new kinds of stuff. Your mission? To learn how materials science and engineering is at work all around you.
Created by WPSU, Science-U@Home offers easy to advanced at-home science activities you can do with materials you have at home.
The goal of WPSU Reads is to enrich our community through storytelling and sharing knowledge of Native American cultures through our network of community partners. Click continue to discover educational resources and find upcoming community events.
This summer your family can go on adventures to continents around the world and expeditions right in your backyard.
Help your young students learn about the colorful world around them with PBS KIDS! Encourage them to immerse themselves in learning about the different elements of art like colors, shapes, lines, and textures. Use creative hands-on activities to support young learners develop fine-motor skills, practice listening to verbal instructions, engage in increasingly complex hand-eye coordination movements, and more.
Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.
Read “Hush Thai Lullaby” by Minfong Ho, a book about a lullaby native to Thailand. After reading, Paris Spitaeri guides students through an poem making activity with animals.
Read The Boy and the Bindi, with Rae Wilson from the NYC Children’s Theater. This book, written by Vivek Shraya, is about a little boy who wears a bindi like his mother.
TEAMology characters treat the topics of bullying and problem-solving! Amelia demonstrates the power of the bystander, while Philo helps with a puzzling pet predicament.
Meet the GIRL!: Hiba is 11 years old and has deemed her girl power to be bravery. She used to be afraid of snakes but with a little bit of inquiry and trust she overcame her fear and now loves all things reptile. She is a great student as she studies the language Arabic with her teacher. She also proclaims herself brave daily as she proudly wears her headscarf, also as a part of her religion. She is not afraid to be who she is!
In this video from Let’s Learn, Glenda Esperance plays the “Domino Parking Lot Game” to explore numbers 0-12.
Your child will learn operating with numbers by being introduced to counting and fractions with this Peg + Cat digital game. Help Peg feed all of her hungry customers the pizza they want. Count the right number of yummy toppings to pile onto each pizza.
Explore various landforms and water bodies in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING. Journey around the island and pick up trash to unlock information—including videos and ground-level and aerial images—about specific landforms and water bodies. Students use the game and associated supports to observe, identify, and record characteristics of common landforms and water bodies as they navigate and represent the landscape from an aerial perspective on a map.
Watch the clip “Sid the Weatherman” from Sid the Science Kid to spark conversations about measuring temperature. Then use the lesson plan to help students understand how to identify differences in temperature, like hot and cold.
Watt and Windy want to help Detritus (who has gotten himself stuck in a tree). They learn that they can call the Fire Department for help.
Watt and Windy help Carry, the mail truck, mail a lost letter named Posty. They learn all about how the post office works.
The performances in this collection were filmed at the Beauty of Jasmine Chinese Music and Dance Concert at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts in March of 2012. The program was presented by the Chinese Music, Dance, and Arts Program (CMDAP), led by director Hong Shao. CMDAP is an educational performing and visual arts program that promotes the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture.
Let’s Go Luna is a PBS KIDS show that follows Luna the Moon and her adventures with Andy, Carmen, and Leo as they travel around the world. Explore cities from all over the globe with these fun videos, and check out the support materials for great classroom activities that connect cultures from around the world to classroom activities.
Make a mask that shows off something special about you. After a mortifying ketchup-related accident, Freddie vows to never show her face again. She joins a mask-making workshop at Asian Arts Initiative expecting to be able to hide her face, but quickly learns that masks aren’t just about concealing something—they can also reveal things that are uniquely you. Use Freddie’s “Paper Mache Mask” activity as you watch and follow along making a mask of your own.
Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.
Ashley Bryan is an eclectic artist who uses painting, poetry, music, collage, and prose to tell stories. Bryan fuses these seemingly separate art forms within his books for children. “I try not to accept walls and boundaries and definitions in a strict way,” he says. “I would hope that everything I do is interrelated.” Bryan is known for retelling African folktales in a distinct, rhythmic prose that is heavily influenced by African-American poetry.
Informational text and Alaska Native culture form the basis of the groundbreaking MOLLY OF DENALI™ series and its educational resources. The MOLLY OF DENALI™ collection offers videos, digital games, lessons, teaching tips, and activities so that educators can utilize the series in the classroom. Set in a rural Alaskan village, and featuring the adventures of Molly, her family, and friends, MOLLY OF DENALI™ models the many ways that children can access and create informational text in their daily lives.
TEAMology characters treat the topics of bullying and problem-solving! Amelia demonstrates the power of the bystander, while Philo helps with a puzzling pet predicament.
Meet the GIRL!: Hiba is 11 years old and has deemed her girl power to be bravery. She used to be afraid of snakes but with a little bit of inquiry and trust she overcame her fear and now loves all things reptile. She is a great student as she studies the language Arabic with her teacher. She also proclaims herself brave daily as she proudly wears her headscarf, also as a part of her religion. She is not afraid to be who she is!
Join Joel Lookadoo as he models some mathematical thinking. Practice using a ten-frame and decomposing numbers to find missing parts of an equation. Use the included resources to practice these strategies in the classroom.
Lyla in the Loop is a PBS KIDS animated series for kids ages 4-8. The show stars Lyla, a dynamic 7-year-old Black girl, her close-knit family, fantastical blue sidekick Stu, and a host of relatable and quirky characters living in her city community, who together spotlight creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills while working collaboratively with others.
Use science inquiry to predict and investigate forces and motion to help rescue Ruff’s plushie from the penguins’ ice rink in this sports science game from The Ruff Ruffman Show.
Players strive to create a balanced mangrove ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a mangrove swamp depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.
The Around the Globe: Cambodia collection allows students to take a virtual trip to Cambodia to learn more about Cambodia’s society and culture, as well as the art of Cambodia through the centuries. Explore significant events in Cambodian history, and the experiences of Cambodian Americans through videos, images, documents, and lesson plans.
Explore mummification in this book about the reasons for and techniques behind this ancient Egyptian practice. LeVar Burton meets a camel outside of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The featured book, Mummies Made in Egypt, is read by actress Corinne Orr. LeVar visits the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see their extensive mummy collection.
The performances in this collection were filmed at the Beauty of Jasmine Chinese Music and Dance Concert at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts in March of 2012. The program was presented by the Chinese Music, Dance, and Arts Program (CMDAP), led by director Hong Shao. CMDAP is an educational performing and visual arts program that promotes the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture.
In the online game, Lost and Found, children go on virtual scavenger hunts with Noah and Nell to collect items that Coco lost on her way to a pool party and a picnic. It’s a good thing that they have some friendly neighbors to help them with Spanish directional clues along the way! In this lesson, children will play Lost and Found and participate in hands-on activities to learn new Spanish vocabulary.
Minding your manners helps everyone enjoy the show. Learn the do’s and dont’s of proper audience etiquette as the folks of Artsville enjoy a purr-fectly lovely dramatic performance.
Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.
Ashley Bryan is an eclectic artist who uses painting, poetry, music, collage, and prose to tell stories. Bryan fuses these seemingly separate art forms within his books for children. “I try not to accept walls and boundaries and definitions in a strict way,” he says. “I would hope that everything I do is interrelated.” Bryan is known for retelling African folktales in a distinct, rhythmic prose that is heavily influenced by African-American poetry.
Say What?! is a clever new digital series about animal expressions. The eight short videos and accompanying support materials below shed light on the funny backstories and meanings of idioms. These resources are designed for use in elementary ELA classrooms as well as for English Language Learners in Grades 4 and up.
COMPASS for Courage is a gamified toolkit to strengthen coping skills in students struggling with anxiety, worries, fear, or stress. COMPASS uses collaborative game-based learning to teach youth research-backed strategies to manage worries, solve problems, build relationships, and face stressful situations with confidence.
Fireflies Musical Yoga for Kids is a 12-part series, consisting of three-minute instructional videos presented by Kira Willey, nationally acclaimed kindie artist and musical yogini. It provides educators with a wonderful tool to help children connect their bodies and minds to music and positivity.
Estimate the volume you get when you fill 3D shapes with candy. This video focuses on estimating volume using nonstandard units, using the volume equation to get a more reliable estimate and checking your estimate by counting the nonstandard units. This video was submitted through the Innovation Math Challenge, a contest open to professional and nonprofessional producers.
How do we know when to round when we are counting? Join 2021 Arkansas Teacher of the Year Susanna Post as she teaches us when we should round up and when we should round down. The worksheet that accompanies this video provides students the opportunity to put their skills to work as they practice rounding up and rounding down.
Students observe, compare, and describe waves, using videos and images of actual waves as well as model diagrams. This interactive lesson engages students in noticing the shape of (transverse) waves and learning how to describe and measure the amplitude and wavelength of waves.
Observe and read about Earth’s cosmic neighborhood and objects found in space with this annotated slideshow of NASA images. This slideshow can pique students’ interest and provide opportunities to ask questions about various objects found beyond Earth’s surface as they consider what telescopes have revealed.
In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills in U.S. history, students learn about the differences between the way white settlers and Native Americans thought about land and land ownership in the mid-1800s. Students explore the concept of Manifest Destiny and how it created conflict in the Great Plains. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and engagement activities.
In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills in U.S. history, students learn about the three branches of the United States government. Students explore the powers that the Constitution assigns to each branch—legislative, executive, and judicial—and how the three branches work together. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and engagement activities.
The performances in this collection were filmed at the Beauty of Jasmine Chinese Music and Dance Concert at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts in March of 2012. The program was presented by the Chinese Music, Dance, and Arts Program (CMDAP), led by director Hong Shao. CMDAP is an educational performing and visual arts program that promotes the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture.
Storyteller Priscilla Howe tells a funny/scary campfire tale about a baby who wants her apple juice. One at a time, the family goes down to the cellar to get the juice, only to be confronted by a ghost. The story is available in English and French.
Students will investigate the work of Cuban artist Leandro Gómez Quintero. A former teacher of history and philosophy, he uses cardboard and refuse found on local streets and beaches to create small-scale models of the vintage cars and trucks in his remote city of Baracoa. Students will understand that the process of making art can be playful and will experiment to solve problems while making a miniature model.
Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.
This lesson plan is about Anna May Wong and introducing her legacy through art and poetry.
Arts education can truly be a transformative journey. Get Lit, an education non-profit dedicated to increasing teen literacy through the power of spoken word, is proud to collaborate with PBS SoCal | KCET in order to inspire creative expression, provide culturally relevant narratives, and grow social-emotional intelligence. Through the unique stories of five Get Lit poets, we not only offer their sheer talent of performance and storytelling, but activities, prompts, and discussion questions to apply to learning both inside and outside of the classroom in these Common Core-aligned mini-lessons.
Chatejah George, the world’s youngest Black female film studio owner, shares personal experiences and highlights the importance of goal setting, managing obstacles, and never giving up on one’s dreams. Through unwavering determination and relentless pursuit, Chatejah serves as a beacon of hope and empowerment for all. Her story serves as a powerful reminder that with resilience and passion, anything is possible.
Relish shares stories of cultural heritage in Twin Cities communities through the universal language of food. In each episode, host Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen takes viewers inside the kitchen with local chefs as they serve up an ingredient or dish that has personal and cultural meaning to them. Viewers learn about and celebrate the diversity of our communities, inspiring them to explore their world in a whole new way.
Learners take on the role of cryptologists to decode clues using pre-algebraic substitution and order of operations. Can you crack the code and stop an international smuggling ring? The activity integrates geography and mathematics, and is best for grades 8 – 12.
Learn how composer and ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro uses ratios and fractions as he creates and plays music in this video from Center for Asian American Media.
In this video, learn how mathematics—specifically, proportion, ratio, rate, and conversions—are used in the professional responsibilities of a registered nurse working on the surgical trauma floor. In the accompanying classroom activity, students take on the role of nursing teams, measuring vital signs, analyzing ratios, and calculating metric conversions.
Explore why the Moon has phases with this first of two interactive lessons that allows students to use simulations and models of the Earth–Sun–Moon system. The lesson includes handouts for students to complete while using multiple simulations that model how the relative positions of the Sun, the Moon, and Earth lead to the cycle of changes in the Moon’s apparent shape.
Explore the basic characteristics of waves—amplitude, frequency, and wavelength—and see how they correspond with observations of light and sound. This gallery of interactives is adapted from the University of Utah’s ASPIRE Lab. Use this resource to develop and use models of waves.
Learn how General George McClellan takes command of the Union Army in this excerpt from The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns. General McClellan takes command of the Union Army with an elaborate plan to destroy the Confederacy, but does nothing.
Discover how Southerners resisted the rights granted to African Americans in the years following the Civil War. In November 1865, the government that President Andrew Johnson had set up in Mississippi passed a set of oppressive laws that only applied to African Americans known as the Black Codes. Other Southern states quickly followed suit. The intent of these laws was to restrict African Americans’ freedom, and compel them to work for white employers in a situation reminiscent of slavery.
The performances in this collection were filmed at the Beauty of Jasmine Chinese Music and Dance Concert at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts in March of 2012. The program was presented by the Chinese Music, Dance, and Arts Program (CMDAP), led by director Hong Shao. CMDAP is an educational performing and visual arts program that promotes the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture.
John Donald Robb carefully recorded and transcribed over 3000 Hispano folk songs all over New Mexico and the Southwest between 1945 and 1972, the largest collection of its time. Like romantic and modernist composers before him, he looked to the songs of everyday folk to inspire and inform his own compositions. He also wanted to provide a living record to the musicians and scholars of New Mexico.
Videos in the Music Arts Toolkit collection explore the history and elements of music. Through live performances and interviews, the collection represents a wide variety of cultures, periods, and styles of music.
Off Book takes us inside the art and culture of logo design. Logos surround us in digital and physical spaces, but we rarely examine the artistic thinking that goes into the design of these symbols. Utilizing a silent vocabulary of colors, shapes, and typography, logo designers give a visual identity to companies and organizations of all types. From cave painters to modern designers, artists throughout history have been reducing the complex down to simple ideas that communicate concepts to the world.
Use this collection to explore who Othello is and learn about the historical figure who possibly inspired William Shakespeare to create the character. Look at the how racism is portrayed in Shakespeare’s play.
Learn about the background and continued relevance of the novel The Joy Luck Club in this video from the American Masters film Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir. Published in 1986, The Joy Luck Club was a break-out hit for its author, Amy Tan. For years, Tan had been working intensely as a freelance business writer. But Tan wanted to pursue more personally meaningful work. She began reading and writing fiction, a process that she found allowed her to write about her family and the person under the guise of fiction.
Relish shares stories of cultural heritage in Twin Cities communities through the universal language of food. In each episode, host Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen takes viewers inside the kitchen with local chefs as they serve up an ingredient or dish that has personal and cultural meaning to them. Viewers learn about and celebrate the diversity of our communities, inspiring them to explore their world in a whole new way.
Addiction impacts people across all ages and groups, and does not discriminate. And mental health and addiction are intertwined. “The Lone Wolf” explores substance abuse, tracing the journey of several people who overcome their addiction.
Learn where today’s widely used number system and basic math functions came from in this video from NOVA: Zero to Infinity. Use this resource to illustrate an example of the contributions of diverse cultures to the mathematics systems we use today.
Following a profile of Elton Brand, an accomplished basketball player who uses math in his work, students are presented with a mathematical basketball challenge. In the challenge, students focus on understanding the Big Ideas of Algebra: patterns, relationships, equivalence, and linearity; learn to use a variety of representations, including modeling with variables; build connections between numeric and algebraic expressions; and use what they have learned previously about number and operations, measurement, proportionality, and discrete mathematics as applications of algebra.
In this interactive activity from ChemThink, learn about solids, liquids, and gases at an atomic level. Investigate how the behavior and interaction of atoms and molecules account for the states of matter. Important terms such as elements, molecules, compounds, and mixtures are also reviewed.
This interactive activity adapted from the University of Alberta illustrates how, through a process called fixation, nitrogen flows from the atmosphere, into the soil, through various organisms, and back to the atmosphere in a continuous cycle.
France colonized the Indochina region—including the area now known as Vietnam—beginning in the mid-19th century. Learn how the French installed local puppet governments and spread French culture, and see how many Vietnamese resisted.
Explore religious beliefs around the world through an interactive map that displays the religions that are the most prevalent in each country around the world. You may click on one of eight religious groupings listed in the menu to examine its relative prevalence in each country. The map features brief descriptions of each religious grouping and bar graphs that reflect the percentage of a country’s population associated with each grouping.
Irasshai teaches Japanese language and culture skills to high school and college students and adult learners and professionals.
John Donald Robb carefully recorded and transcribed over 3000 Hispano folk songs all over New Mexico and the Southwest between 1945 and 1972, the largest collection of its time. Like romantic and modernist composers before him, he looked to the songs of everyday folk to inspire and inform his own compositions. He also wanted to provide a living record to the musicians and scholars of New Mexico.
These resources are curated monthly based on new PBS LearningMedia content and recent events.
A growing list of resources from PBS and trusted partners, to use as tools to support anti-racist learning and growth. Free and open for all. (pdf)
Centre County Local Interagency Coordinating Council (LICC) resource book, a guide to services and supports for children birth to five (0-5).
Sonia Manzano, known as Maria on Sesame Street, will speak about how parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and those working with children can learn how to talk to kids about race.
Find parenting tips, hands-on activities, games, and apps for grades PreK-3 to help you raise kind, curious, and resilient children.
Hundreds of multi-media tools to help kids and families enrich and expand their knowledge during the early years of birth through six.
